Many of my friends know I was born in Scotland and my parents emigrated to Australia, dragging along my younger brother Steven and myself with promises of sunshine and beaches.
We were born in Dunfermline, Fife. "The ancient Capital of Scotland", this was in the late 70’s, I was 15 and Steven 12.
We lived in Dunfermline until I was about 8 then we moved to a brand new house in Bonnyrigg Midlothian 15km outside of Edinburgh about a half hour drive over the Forth Road Bridge.
I have not been back to see my homeland and I have family (my godparents) that I’m really close to, so when we couldn’t get to the UK with Adriana but landed in Portugal we felt we were almost there, well at least on the right side of the world, and I was desperate to go visit.
We chose a boatyard in Faro where we were able take Adriana out of the water for some minor repairs and a new bottom paint job, we chose Faro because of the low cost and the added bonus that there is an international airport close by.
Faro is a popular destination from the UK with Ryanair, Jet2.com and Easyjet all constantly flying in and out ferrying British holidaymakers, so the flights were cheap, ha ha but never as cheap as you think, by the time you have to choose your seat, take insurance etc it all adds up but still way cheaper than anything in or out of Oz.
We didn’t realise how easy getting to the airport was going to be....
It is literally a 20 minute walk to the bus station, then a €4 bus ride to the airport.
We did the trip to the airport the day before just to make sure we had the details correct and to suss out the PCR testing for the morning.
Talking to the testing staff we decided to take the test there and then, that was easier and still within the 72 hours allowed.
A few weeks beforehand we had received word that we could apply for an EU digital Covid Vaccination Passport, (after being vaccinated in Dutch Sint Marten)
My one had come through early in the week but there was some frantic emails to get Craigs sorted, it literally came through the night before we left.
So with our negative results in hand we left Adriana locked up in the yard and sprinted off to the bus station, everything went smoothly and we arrived with plenty of time for a coffee and some breakfast, Craig enjoyed the English Cafe “sausage and egg roll”, I don’t think he wanted to share it but at €8 we weren’t buying two, plus we are going to the UK there are sure to be lots of good sausages. Our Australian dollar us literally half of the value of the British pound so a $16 roll.
The trip was quite emotional for me, I have dreamed of this for so long so it’s no surprise I was crying on and off the whole flight, I was "going home" You should have seen me going through passport control, I decided to use my Australian passport as I really didn’t want to confuse things with boats and borders and Covid, I felt it was best to keep everything the same as Craigs.
My Australian passport wouldn’t scan and I had to go to the desk.
The poor man that got me, he actually said “Welcome Home”, he said he was from Fife too, “but why wasn’t I using my British Passport”
After the welcome home I was greeting like a wee bairn. (Crying like a mad woman actually)
Through my tears I tried to explain I was on a boat and with Covid and Schengen I thought it best, but I think I was crying so much he had no idea what I was talking about - so he just waved me through.
My Dads brother my - Uncle David, my Auntie June and cousin Lisa were all there to meet us, wow it was a surreal feeling.
The still dark morning air was a bit cooler than what we had left behind but it wasn’t as cold as expected.
David and June live in Clackmannan a little town between Edinburgh and Glasgow, very close to Alloa close to the city of Stirling.
The whole countryside is seeped in history and the locals take it for granted that there is a humongous castle, a monument to King Wallace and a strange standing stone beside an ancient clock tower to name a few things, there was a bit of Hadrians wall somewhere in there too all in less than a 25km radius.
On one of our walks we visited Clackmannan Tower that is next to " The stone"
The stone or Clack was sacred to the pre-Christian deity Mannan a unique relic of pagan times, it’s been moved from its original location but that was in 1833 !!. There is also the Clackmannan...... within sight of Stirling Castle.
Then Craig and I had a few days staying in the Laird and Dog hotel in Lasswade, this is where I went to primary school, I didn’t realise how very beautiful the area was, well I knew it was special but it’s really a lovely place.
My primary school was built in 1843. That’s around the time of the gold rush in Australia.
It has now been converted into flats, but the original building is still the same, it’s set on top of a hill with the river Esk running below, we had to walk over the river and up the hill to the school.
My house was only a few minutes walk from where the walkway down the hill towards the primary school emerged, it’s really @#$& steep I made Craig follow me up the brae regaling him with tales of my childhood, in Winter when it snowed we would have the best fun sliding doon the brae but the climb home could be a bit precarious especially where the snow had turned to ice, we had to cling to the walls and scramble our way back up.
My old childhood home just looked exactly the same, the street hadn’t changed and I wondered if anyone living there would remember the Archibald’s, you know the folk that emigrated to Australia.
The old pub we stayed in was quite a treat, old wooden panelled walls with huge old oil paintings, a winding timber staircase led upstairs, our room opened on to the street with the double decker buses having a birds eye view into the room as they trundled past.
One of my fondest memories from Lasswade Primary was visiting the graveyards behind the school for art classes (we were allowed to make etchings of the stones)and learning that these kirks were where graverobbers would steal the recently deceased bodies and sell them to Edinburgh University for the medical students to study.
We spent a lovely afternoon wandering up past the school and through the graveyard examining all the headstones, there is even a knight ensconced in a small private chapel.
A few days earlier we had visited Stirling Castle with David and June, Lisa and Brodie, while we were wandering through the graveyard there a local guide came up to us and showed us some points of interest, wow was he good, we learnt what a lot of the symbols engraved in the headstones meant and he even pointed out holes from muscat shots on the church walls and in the headstones in front of said walls, from a battle,
Lisa literally stuck her finger in a bullet hole from the 1600’s.
So with this little bit of knowledge we were able to look for the symbols and appreciate the stonemasons craftsmanship a little bit more.
Craig finally had his full Scottish breakfast with haggis and tatie scones but we actually wished we hadn’t had it included in the tariff as after the first morning the novelty wore off and we struggled to eat that much food again, luckily they had a smaller version.
We also sampled their locally sourced pork sausages and ta da their steak and Guinness pie.
Covid has definatly changed everything, we sat downstairs in the bar a couple of times and everyone said hello but we all kept the to social distancing rules and never really got into conversation with the locals.
Only one man came and gave us his card, he works as a tour guide in Edinburgh grey hair, kilt and all, can’t blame him for trying to rustle up some business.
Edinburgh was only a short bus ride away, even though Lasswade and Bonnyrigg are etched in my memory I had no recollection of the roads to and from the city.
We sat up top and front of the double decker bus just for the fun of it, Edinburgh is a beautiful city shadowed by the imposing Castle.
As a 13-14 yr old I remember exploring the Royal Mile the ancient cobblestoned road leading up the the castle it has many small side lanes and Braes that haven’t changed over the hundreds of years, the tourist shops certainly have though, I was brought to tears again by a piper busking on a corner, it’s in my blood to feel so strongly about the sound of the bagpipes.
Our budget didn’t stretch to pay to enter every castle we encountered we gave Edinburgh Castle a miss, skipped going in to Stirling castle but couldn’t resist seeing what all the fuss is about at Rosalyn Chapel and I’m so glad we did, this is the one that’s in Greg Browns Davinchi Code..
We visited family, spent lots of time drinking cups of tea and sharing meals. David and June booked us all into a airb&b in the highlands so we had a trip to Loch Lomond, Loch Ness and the Cairgorms. We had a day trip to Ben Nevis.
It was a great break from sailing and so exciting to see my family and Scotland again.
But our time was running out and it was time to head back to Adriana.
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